Windows 7: Restoring Windows 7 from Windows 8 Developer Preview

SIW2 · 25 Jan 2012

You would normally give the recov partition a drive letter - then set it as the Active partition - do you get those options if you rt click it in disk mgmt?

Otherwise, Which of those is the bootable.wim?

Any chance of some sort of screenshot - we need to see the contents of the recov partition as well as ?

Try a 3rd party explorer for a screenshot - explorer++ perhaps

Explorer++ - A small and fast file manager for Windows

gregrocker · 25 Jan 2012

He gave you those steps 4 days ago. Easy will pick up the correct file.

Quote: Originally Posted by SIW2

It depends how Dell have set it up.

If you can find a file on the recovery partition called boot.wim or winre.wim , or restore.wim or similar ( it won't be very big - 165-200mb - [there will probably another .wim file called factory.wim or install.wim- much larger] )

It is the smaller one you want to add to your boot menu.

The easiest way to do that is with the free version of easybcd.

EasyBCD Download Registration Page — NeoSmart Technologies

Attachment 194146

Select ADD ENTRY

Attachment 194141

Select the WINPE Tab and click the little browse icon

Attachment 194142

Browse to the bootable.wim file , click Open

Attachment 194143

Then click ADD

Attachment 194144

Restart your pc and select the boot menu entry called NST WINPE IMAGE

SIW2 · 25 Jan 2012

Oh , there you go - thought I had seen it somewhere.

Perhaps I am not going mad after all.

Quote: Originally Posted by gregrocker

Yes, I suggested it two days ago. I learned it from you Si years ago.

Quote: Originally Posted by gregrocker

It likely is only a hidden file, not a System file. Did you uncheck Hidden files?

You can try to restore Recovery to the F8 menu: Dell Recovery Partition - restoring F8 link

You can also try marking the Recovery partition Active to see if it will boot itself: Partition - Mark as Active

Otherwise you can order Factory Recovery disks from Dell, or use a Windows 7 retail installer to get a superior Clean Reinstall with the Product Key on COA sticker if you will answer my questions asked.

jmanwithplan · 25 Jan 2012

OK, on disk management inside of windows, I set the recovery partition as active. C: is the one that usually boots to, but the one that is only 39 MB is the OEM partition.

Here is a screenshot of ++explorer, showing that the recovery folder is empty, and the second screenshot is in partition wizard where it shows the files, basically there are a few different .wim files.